Abhisek Mukherjee,courtesy of Cricket Countywhere the title reads“Don Bradman and his ducks”

Don Bradman averaged 99.94 at the highest level for Australia. The First-Class average, if anything, was lower (95.14), which still remain the highest by a distance. Ducks, thus, are a statistic one does not usually associate with the man. Abhishek Mukherjee lists Bradman’s First-Class ducks. Don Bradman made 16 First-Class ducks. Surprisingly, seven of them came in Tests. As we know, if he had scored an aggregate of four from those seven innings he would have finished with a three-digit Test average, which makes the ducks even more unbelievable. (See the photo gallery of Don Bradman’s ducks here)

Ashley Mallett,courtesy of CRICKET MONTHLY and ESPNcricinfo where the title of this article is “Bradman as a Boy”

At Bowral Primary School in the summer of 1915-16, Don Bradman, not yet eight years old, built a reputation as a cricketer. When the bell tolled to end another school day, Bradman didn’t dally to chat with others. In a desperate rush to get home, he ran helter-skelter through the small township of Bowral, turned into Shepherd Street, hurdled a white picket fence, breezed through his front door, and tossing his school bag in the hall and grabbing his cricket bat, yelled, “C’mon Mum, how about bowling me down a few?” Emily Bradman smiled. She discarded her apron, shifted the kettle on the stove and dutifully followed her son into the backyard. As Mrs Bradman wheeled down her own brand of left-arm deliveries, she could never have imagined that the small boy facing her at the other end of the back lawn would one day become the greatest batsman the world has known.

Bradman at 21, about to set sail for the 1930 Ashes, with a trophy for his world-record 452 made earlier in the year

So far as I know, there are two great cricket songs. Writing on Roy Harper’s ‘When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease’ in (the now defunct) The Word magazine, David Hepworth said that it, summons the shade of every village cricket pitch we have ever gazed hungrily upon or glimpsed from a passing car… Both John Peel and John Walters wanted this song played after their deaths. There is scarcely an Englishman who wouldn’t wish for the same honour. [1]

Like most reflections on cricket, the song is more than the mechanics and narrative of the game. From depicting everyman’s park cricket match in dear, gentle hues, the lyric strides to the elevated plain of existence and death. The game is not used merely as an allegory though. It would be a dull, unsporting soul who held so. Rather, cricket is recognised as the superb use of existence that it is, as delivered in the second verse,

… as those footsteps trace for the last time out of the act Well this way of life’s recollection, the hallowed strip in the haze The fabled men and the noonday sun are much more than just yarns of their days.

Says Prof. Ravindra Fernando during Q and A with Dr. Hemamal Jayawardena
When I dropped in recently at the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Colombo to get some guidance on some forensic aspects of child
abuse, a subject on which the professor is a pioneering expert, I noticed a book on his table on a subject that had nothing to do with forensic
medicine. It was titled, “Sathasivam of Ceylon – the Batting Legend”. This interested me and I went over a few pages. It took me a while to
realise that it was Professor Fernando who had authored the book, to my surprise. It was unusual as the book was not on medicine or a medically
related subject as he usually writes. It was on cricket! More accurately, about a cricketer. As we spoke more, I recalled reading a piece he had
written long ago on our ace wicket keeper, Kaluwitharana to the newspaper as well and realised that Professor is a keen cricket fan. This led to the
following interview which I thought will be of interest to all our readers.